Crime & Safety
LaGuardia Airport Worker Turned Bathroom Into 'Peep Show': DA
Samuel Rodriguez, 39, an airport worker, will serve six months in jail after he admitted secretly recorded "pretty girls" in a restroom.
NEW YORK CITY — A LaGuardia Airport worker's secret recordings of women in a public restroom didn't fly with authorities.
Samuel Rodriguez, 39, received a six-month sentence on Monday after he pleaded guilty to unlawful surveillance.
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz, in a release, said Rodriguez admitted to using his phone to record "pretty girls" using the bathroom.
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"He turned an airport restroom into his own personal peep show," Katz said in a statement. "This is unconscionable and as a result of his actions the defendant is going to jail.”
Rodriguez's path to a guilty plea started in December 2018, when a woman entered a unisex restroom after Rodriguez. She noticed a beeping sound and traced it a phone hidden in the paper towel dispenser, authorities said.
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The woman looked at the phone and managed to play back a clip of video showing Rodriguez setting up the phone inside the paper towel dispenser, authorities said. The footage showed him angling toward the toilet, according to a release.
Law enforcement officers caught up with Rodriguez, who quickly admitted to setting the camera up.
“I was trying to video pretty girls," he told them, according to a release.
Rodriguez will have to register as a sex offender. He also will be under 10 years of post-release supervision.
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